I’m glad Jacques Lemaire is now back coaching in the Eastern Conference, as opposed to the past seven seasons, when we’d see Minnesota execute his tight-checking, neutral-zone clogging, trapping style of hockey four times per year. It’s certainly proven successful over the years, but it sucks the life out of a game for huge stretches, as Lemaire’s team plays its system to a ‘T’ and waits to pounce on turnovers. “It wasn’t pretty,’’ Predators forward J.P. Dumont said. “They just sit back and wait for a mistake.’’

On the other hand, as Coach Barry Trotz pointed out afterward, maybe the Preds will benefit from having to play the kind of smart, patient, systematic hockey that they played in beating the Devils. Let’s not forget that Columbus arrives on Saturday, and Coach Ken Hitchcock isn’t exactly known for wanting to trade chances with opponents either. “They give up low shot totals, they deflect shots, they wedge (traffic) in the middle,’’ Trotz said of the Devils. “We hadn’t seen it in a while, as much structure as they play. It’s actually good for us to play a team where you had to be a little more patient and you have to work for every inch. They don’t give you a whole lot.’’

I have a feeling Preds fans are going to enjoy watching Jordin Tootoo play during this contract season. Whether players whose contracts are up at the end of the season actually perform better – knowing they’ll need a new deal – is debatable, but it sure looks that way sometimes. Tootoo definitely made his presence felt against the Devils, posting a game-high five hits and driving Devils forward David Clarkson to distraction. “We said, ‘Toots, we just want you to play. Just be hard on people,’ ’’ Trotz said. “They were trying to goad him into a few majors. Toots just played. He played hard. They wanted to get him off his game and he got them off their game.’’

It’s a good thing Mike Santorelli and Martin Erat scored in the shootout for the Preds, because the line of Erat-Santorelli-Patric Hornqvist that started the game produced very little in the way of offensive chances. Santorelli wound up with less than 10 minutes of ice time for the third straight contest. He’s managed just one point in the last seven games, and I’m wondering if we might see a switch – Santorelli and Cal O’Reilly – as the Preds look for more offensive pop from that spot. Hornqvist has seen his ice time slashed as well over the past few games, strange considering he’d been one of the few Preds scoring goals.

Pekka Rinne is looking intimidating in the net once again. He picked up his fourth straight victory on Thursday, in part because he was better than Marty Brodeur in the shootout. Rinne had only allowed five goals in 24 shootout attempts prior to Thursday, and he stopped two-of-three Devils. Rinne probably should have posted a shootout shutout, but allowed a fluke, flailing backhand by Travis Zajac to get past him on New Jersey’s last attempt.